Basejumper.com - archive

This may be a touchy subject and people may not want to share, but I'm curious to know how many people that have been base jumping for any amount of time have not been arrested. It seems to me that most people will have been pinched at one point or another, but that's just my gut reaction. Anyway, I guess my question is several-fold:
1) Have you been arrested? (obviously for base related activities)
2) How long have you been base jumping? (years and/or jump #s)
3) What were you charged with?;
a) What was the outcome? (plead out, tried the case, guilty or not);
b) Assuming you plead or were convicted, what was your sentence?
4) What caused you to be arrested and is there something that you could have done to prevent it, other than climbing onto the object? (i.e. did you do something stupid that in retrospect could have been avoided)

In this sport we focus on technical safety (and rightly so) however, the legal ramifications can, and should, play a significant part in someone's decision to get into base, so I thought I would ask. Thanks for the input.

Not to be persnickety, but maybe the grammatical error and
logical error in your first (and very long sentence) is part of
the reason no one has replied. Versus your suggestion that
this subject is touchy and people may not want to share.

If a person had NOT been BASE jumping for "ANY" amount
of time then they would have no reason to be arrested for it.

Also, if a person had NOT been arrested for BASE jumping then
how could he or she be able to answer your seven-fold question?

________________________________________________________


When I first got into BASE my 4 questions were:
1) how many skydives do you have?
2) how many BASE jumps do you have?
3) ever been hurt? any serious injuries?
4) ever been arrested? any close calls?

Since I am very outgoing and will talk to anyone, I was
lucky enough to ask many jumpers these questions and
here is a rough re-cap of the range of answers I got:

1) # of Skydives
Lowest: less than 10
Mean: 200 - 800
Highest: 6,000+

2) # of BASE jump
Lowest: 1
Mean: 50 - 350
Highest: 1300+

3) # of Injuries
Best: 0
Mean: 1-2 broken bones
Worst: paralysis

4) # of Arrests
Best: 0
Most: 0-1 w/ some close calls
Worst: 3


FYI - if you had searched on here and via Google you
would have found that some of the possible charges
include: trespassing (misdemeanor, criminal, or felony),
reckless endangerment if you jump or fly over a person,
aerial delivery if one's caught jumping on NPS land, and
breaking & entering if pick/break a lock to gain access.

jumping 17 years, semiretired from jumping for about a year now. one bust, back in 1999. resulted in an evading arrest charge. got 3 months of deferred adjudication and 20 hours of community service. did my community service with the ACLU protesting the police.

ur my new hero!!!! LMAO!!!!!!! :') AAAAAHHHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAA!!! still LMAO!!!!!!

If you are thinking about getting into BASE, I'd say do not fret. Simply jump the legal objects!

Many people go to BD, do one or two jumps and realize the sport is not for them. The same happens during FJCs out in ID.

Discover what BASE means to you. Discover what reward BASE presents to you. You can't balance risk vs reward by only studying risk.

New jumpers get overloaded with all sorts of things. Focus on the safety stuff first. One step at a time. After a few jumps, you will realize if you really want to risk arrest!

You can get arrested for BASE jumping????

I can't confirm that rumor. (I've even called the Sheriff department before jumping!)

I also do not know where bears defecate.

BASE 37, J.D., is BASE bust #1. Arrested on all 4 types of objects...

I have been jumping for five years, no bust, and I would also call myself semiretired (due to an injury from a paragliding accident). However, I am unsure what this is exactly supposed to signify .

So what is it for you?


I like that, there is some irony in it .

jumping for close to 13 years now, approaching 600 jumps (I know I'm slow, but I do have other things going on in my life) never been arrested. I have been "detained by authorities three times, all back in the 20th century. Once each on a Texas A and S, both resulting in verbal slap on the wrist with "we'll be into touch if we find something to charge you with" (trespassing was not valid in either case). And once off an E in Oregon which produced a $60 fine for "paragliding without a permit".

toodleoo you mad mad F-ers!

MBA-2

No.
3 years

My view is that frequency of getting busted is inversely proportional to the care and planning you put into your preparations and jumps.

semiretired since i have other things i want to do in my life. plus, jumping takes a ton of effort.

the other times consisted of: i've run from the law and escaped, once. i've been detained one time but released without charge.

 

wrong. if you jump a lot urban stuff you will get busted.
more than once.
not all busts lead to arrests though.
to get arrested in europe you have to do some pretty stupid stuff...

this is also a nice educational tool:

http://nevergetbusted.com/

thank you.
i need one of them holsters....

We should have asked those cops that night/morning but they looked busy

If a person had NOT been BASE jumping for "ANY" amount
of time then they would have no reason to be arrested for it.

I was looking for a response from people that had a some time in the sport. "Any" was meant to mean "any significant" amount of time. I chose to omit the word "significant" so I didn't have to define it.


Also, if a person had NOT been arrested for BASE jumping then
how could he or she be able to answer your seven-fold question?

They could have been arrested for something completely unrelated and I was trying to avoid the "I was arrested for jay-walking" responses.

FYI - if you had searched on here and via Google you
would have found that some of the possible charges
include: trespassing (misdemeanor, criminal, or felony),
reckless endangerment if you jump or fly over a person,
aerial delivery if one's caught jumping on NPS land, and
breaking & entering if pick/break a lock to gain access.

My question wasn't directed at what i can be charged with. I'm sure that you are aware that what "can" happen and what "does" happen often differ considerably, i.e. just because I "can" be arrested for blasphemy in Massachusetts if I speak out against religion, it doesn't mean that it's actually going to happen. All I was looking for was some real world experiences. I do appreciate you proof reading my post though.

Thanks to everyone who responded.

Hi Jack,

Just messing with you man. Good rule of thumb
when dealing with nerds and the written word...
anytime they use the word "persnickety", they
are about to be a real pain in your ass.

Sorry, just my own weird brand of humor...
but you did get 17 replies & lots of info

FYI - I would rather get arrested than hurt.

Just to add, often times when a jumper is "caught" they are not arrested. Some sort of violation or 'appear in court XX date' or confiscation of gear is handed out right then and there and the jumper is sent on their way. Of course, there are cases where the jumper is hand cuffed and taken into custody----which is what I would call being arrested.

I was caught in a NP (actually a National Monument but it still falls under all the exact same federal laws). Never arrested or even hand cuffed, just took the gear and off I went with a peice of paper in hand. Had to appear in Federal court with a fat ass pocket of cash to get out of that one (FUCK the NPS just in case any of you were wondering......I hope some of them DO read these forums)!!!!!!!

My point is, if this adds to your questions, you can be busted but not arrested and still suffer some very harsh penalties.

No worries bro. I'm a lot harder to offend than that.

I've been busted once just over a year ago. A neighbor called the cops and a helicopter quickly showed up as we were about to jump and started searching around us. Once we realized it saw us (hovering about 10 feet in front of us with a spotlight on us), we jumped. Upon landing we split up and ran and the helicopter followed me until the cops yelled for me to freeze and I did, then they cuffed me, put me in a squad car and took me to jail for the night. The others got away.

I was charged with trespassing and resisting arrest, I showed up for my arraignment and the judge insisted I come back with a lawyer. I hired one and he eventually worked out a differed entry of judgment with the DA, that as long as I pay a $100 fine (in addition to lawyer fees of course), complete 40 hours of community service (I volunteered at an animal shelter), and don't get arrested in the next year from my conviction (6 months after my arrest, so 1.5 years total), then my case gets dismissed. My gear was confiscated as evidence during my arrest (and dragged about a half mile to the cop car despite my pleas for the cop to pick it up) but it was returned to me about 6 months later.

I've been BASE jumping for 4 years, for 2 of those years doing illegal jumps, I haven't done an illegal jump since my arrest, and I have somewhere around 300 BASE jumps. I still have to make it 4 more months without getting into trouble, but I've been making some legal BASE jumps in the meantime.

Thanks for your opinion but I do jump urban stuff alot, in major cities, for the past few seasons now with no problems.

i thought the same...but it will happen.
some day a cop so far away you don't even see him will look up, see a black canopy on black skies in a moonless night. on the worst object possible . and on the ground he may ask you "didn't i do a tandem with you 4 weeks back?" and you stand there in complete disbelief
also peoples scale of "a lot" differs.
big city + big buildings + downtown = bust waiting to happen.
i learned it the hard way, and like brian fry it will slow you down significantly.
at least in that jurisdiction